Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Meets With Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader and Welcomes Dominican Delegation to New York State During 81st Session of[...]

Governor Kathy Hochul today met with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader and Congressmember Adriano Espaillat to further strengthen the relationship between New York State and the Dominican Republic. This meeting builds on the Governor's commitment during a visit to the Dominican Republic last November, in which the two leaders signed a historic bilateral agreement to share expertise, resources and innovative technologies aimed at protecting citizens from the growing threat of extreme weather. Governor Hochul also welcomed a delegation of approximately 40 emergency management and public safety representatives from the Dominican Republic to New York State for a comprehensive training and collaboration summit. The Emergency Management and Infrastructure Protection summit, which runs from September 21-25, is hosted at the State Preparedness Training Center (SPTC) in Oriskany and focuses on emergency planning, response and protecting communities from future disasters.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Buenos días y todos. I'm very proud to welcome my friend, the President of the great country of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, and his visit here means a great deal to me. It comes upon the tail of a visit I had in his country just a year ago, where I was very welcome. I was the first Governor in history to ever be invited to address the Congress. We spoke about many of our mutual interests, how we handle economic headwinds which are coming only stronger with tariffs and other challenges. Energy costs, the cost of gasoline and diesel, but also to find out how we can work together. And part of that has been even using the expertise that we have here in New York to deal with disasters which bator the island, but also better New York. And we have worked very hard together to bring a team of 40 individuals who are emergency management personnel from the Dominican Republic, who are literally training right now in Upstate New York at the facilities that we provide for our emergency trainings - and so we're going to be addressing that momentarily, speaking to the leadership and thanking them for what they're doing, working on environmental challenges.

We can provide assistance from the Department of Environmental Conservation with Yaqui, the river that has been contaminated for many, many decades and I'm proud to hear the progress that you have made. Working on a lot of areas of mutual interest.

But all I know is that as the Governor of a state that is proud to be the home of one million people of Dominican descent, I want to make sure that this community feels protected. In light of massive crackdowns by ICE, which we find abhorrent - the way they've been managed. This is not about just getting criminals and the worst of the worst out of the country as was promised. They're going after law abiding individuals who run our restaurants and bodegas and work and are really part of the important fabric of our community.

I also want to thank an extraordinary leader, a friend of mine for many decades, Adriano Espaillat our Congressman, who was my ambassador to take me to the Dominican Republic, to Santiago first - the home of himself and the President, as well as Santo Domingo. And it was a very eye opening experience. It was one I'll never forget and I want to thank him for all he does, building relationships but also what he has done in his own community as a representative. I want to also thank our Chairman of the Bridge Authority, Minosca Alcantara, and thank her for all the work that she has done. Helping again foster deeper relationships between our state and the free country the Dominican Republic.